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B-17 Boeing Plant Seattle You Haven’t Seen Many of These Images Before (38 Pics)

Boeing Plant 2 (also known as Air Force Plant 17) was a factory building which was built in 1936 by the Boeing Corporation in King County, Washington in the United States. By the time production ceased in the building, the plant had built half of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortresses, the Boeing 307s, the Boeing 377s, some of the Boeing B-29 Superfortresses, Boeing B-50 Superfortresses, B-47 Stratojets, B-52 Stratofortresses, and the initial Boeing 737s. It was located between the Duwamish River and Boeing Field.

Boeing began making aircraft parts at Plant 2 in 1936, when the total number of employees had just passed the 1,000 mark. Raw materials and large parts were barged up the Duwamish to the back doors. At the peak of the war effort, on a single day in April 1944, Boeing assembled 16 of its B-17 bombers. In all, the facility built 6,981 B-17s during the war, according to Boeing.

Many workers were women, part of the country’s “Rosie the Riveter” war effort. To protect the facility against a potential Japanese bombing raid, the rooftop was camouflaged to look like a suburban neighborhood.